First iPhone 3G 2009 Screens Look Very Real To Me — I'm looking at these images from a Hong Kong blog, and they totally look like The Real Thing™ to me. Sure they are blurry, but those applications' user interface definitely screams Apple design. The gallery shows the compass …

Prepare For The Facebook Vanity URL Landrush — Facebook will soon be allowing all users to claim a vanity URL pointing to their regular profile page, we've heard from a reliable source. The announcement should come sometime later this week. Afterwards, at a certain date and time, the landrush will begin.

Blogging guru chips away at Great Firewall of China — HONG KONG (AFP) — How would you react if one million of your customers were suddenly stopped from coming into your shop? Matt Mullenweg just shrugged. — The 25-year-old American is the founder of Wordpress, software …

Apple Now Charging to Re-Download Apps on the iPhone? — Looks like Apple's begun charging full price if you try to download an app you've already bought over the iPhone. This did not used to be the case — previously you'd be given a dialog stating you'd already bought it and you could go ahead and re-download it for free.

In Music, Apple's Strength Becomes a Vulnerability — One of Apple's great successes this decade has been its ability to unite the cell phone, the portable MP3 player and the music store in one ingenious handheld device, the iPhone. As new applications arise that allow on-demand streaming music …

Cory Visits and the Social Networking Execs Line Up — Last Friday I got invited to join a brainstorming session to help Newark City mayor Cory Booker using social software. Why was this meeting different than yet another celebrity or politician tweetering and Facebooking?

In San Francisco, Homeless Stay Wired — Mr. Pitts Lacks a Mailing Address But He's Got a Computer and a Web Forum — SAN FRANCISCO — Like most San Franciscans, Charles Pitts is wired. Mr. Pitts, who is 37 years old, has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Nintendo to launch new version of Wii Fit: report — Nintendo Co Ltd plans to launch a new version of its “Wii Fit” home exercise game this autumn, aiming to help boost sluggish sales of its Wii console in Japan, the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday.

WordPress and WordPress MU to Merge — This is the first year I did not attend WordCamp San Francisco, the annual event that is the largest of the WordCamp gathering. It seems like I'm missing the announcement of some big news. — Matt Mullenweg announced during his State of the Word speech …